EQUITIES
Foreigners sell NT$6.31bn
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$6.31 billion (US$226.73 million) of local shares after buying a net NT$15.5 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$28.48 billion of local shares from the beginning of the year, it said. Last week, the top three shares foreign investors sold were Innolux Corp (群創), United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), while the top three bought were Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) and Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), the exchange said. The market cap of shares held by foreign investors was NT$24.52 trillion, or 43.4 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Marketech proposes dividend
Semiconductor equipment supplier Marketech International Corp (帆宣) yesterday said its board of directors proposed to distribute a cash dividend of NT$4.5 per share after the company reported that net profit was up 69.35 percent year-on-year to NT$1.55 billion last year. With earnings per share of NT$8.24, the proposed dividend represented a payout ratio of 54.61 percent. It also translated into a dividend yield of 2.71 percent. Marketech shares closed at NT$165.5 in Taipei trading yesterday.
METALS
China Steel profit falls 7.89%
China Steel Corp (中鋼) yesterday reported that pretax profit last month decreased 7.89 percent month-on-month to NT$5.49 billion due to declines in average selling prices and higher costs of sales. The Kaohsiung-based company said that shipments fell 0.37 percent to 724,225 tonnes from 726,884 tonnes in the previous month. On an annual basis, pretax profit surged 52 percent from NT$3.61 billion, it said. Sales last month were NT$40.02 billion, down 2 percent month-on-month, but up 30 percent year-on-year, it said.
AIRLINES
StarLux prepares new planes
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) on Saturday took delivery of its first wide-body aircraft, an Airbus A330-900neo, which it plans to put into service in May. The plane would initially fly regional routes to Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Macau, Tokyo and Singapore, it said. Under its agreement to lease eight A330neos, Starlux is to take delivery of an additional three A330neos this year, it said.
BIOPHARMA
Agency sets Taigexyn price
TaiGen Biopharmaceuticals Holdings Ltd (太景醫藥研發控股) last week said that the National Health Insurance Administration set a reimbursement price of NT$2,200 for its intravenously administered antibiotic Taigexyn, effective from Monday next week. Taigexyn is used to treat bacterial infections, including those caused by drug-resistant bacteria. It works faster than an oral drug and can be given to hospitalized patients or those who cannot take oral drugs due to severe illness, the company said.
REAL ESTATE
YeaShin planning projects
YeaShin International Development Co (亞昕國際開發) has 4,000 ping (13,223m2) of undeveloped plots in Taichung and plans to launch one to two projects annually that could generate more than NT$20 billion in revenue, the Taipei-based developer said last week. Its presale project of 60 apartment units, which feature two to four bedrooms, in Taichung’s Beitun District (北屯) is 93 percent sold out, the company said.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
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